UN urges action on killings of Afghan women

May 06, 2005

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — The UN sounded an alarm for women's rights in Afghanistan on Thursday after three young Afghan women were found raped, hanged and dumped on a roadside with a warning not to work for foreign relief organizations.

Women's groups rallied in the capital to protest the killings, which came weeks after another woman was murdered for alleged adultery--examples of brutality that appear to have survived the fall of the Taliban.

The bodies of the women were found Sunday in Baghlan province, 120 miles north of Kabul, and officials and doctors said they had been raped and hanged. A note found with the bodies said they were killed for working for international aid groups.

"While there is no confirmation that this was the case or the actual motive of the killing, this could constitute a threat to women working for non-governmental organizations, which [the UN] strongly condemns," UN spokeswoman Ariane Quentier said.

Police arrested a woman and two men in the killings.

Afghan officials said one of the slain women, identified only as Mahbooba, had worked for a Bangladeshi relief group. However, the group's managers denied any link to the victims.